[[quoteright:300:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/suikoden-2_7480.jpg]]%%Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1325073773038340100%%Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.

[[TimeSkip Three years]] after the events of the [[SuikodenI original game]], the nation of Jowston has just signed a ceasefire with the Highland Kingdom. The protagonist, an orphan adopted by the late hero Genkaku, has just joined the army alongside his best friend Jowy. However, they fall afoul of one of the most twisted examples of a FalseFlagOperation ever attempted, courtesy of Luca Blight. Barely escaping this fate, they soon find themselves saddling with the two halves of the [[EmpathicWeapon Rune of the Beginning]], the [[CastingAShadow Black]] [[StormOfBlades Sword]] [[PowerOfTheVoid Rune]] and the [[LightTheWay Bright]] [[WhiteMagic Shield]] [[HolyHandGrenade Rune]]. From there, their paths split, as the protagonist takes the [[LaResistance traditional hero's route]] and Jowy sets out to break the system from within, setting the stage for a war where both sides fight for the exact same goal.

''SuikodenII'' takes the themes established in the first game and weaves a far more complex plot around them, with heavy doses of GreyAndGrayMorality thrown into the mix. Add in plenty of [[ContinuityNod Continuity Nods]], the return of several [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan favorites]] and a liberal dose of [[PlayerPunch Player Punches]] and you've got a game which is still considered the high point of the series by much of the fandom.

[[CrackIsCheaper To those who want to play the game but cannot afford to shell out anywhere from $100 to over $500 for a copy]], ''PlaystationNetwork'' has announced that it will release the game as [[http://www.siliconera.com/2014/04/22/looks-like-suikoden-ii-will-re-released-playstation-network/ a Playstation Classic]].

Character Sheet [[Characters/SuikodenII here!]]

----!!SuikodenII provides examples of:

* AnnoyingArrows:** Luca Blight treats them this way. [[spoiler:During the ambush, he gets hit repeatedly with them, but seemingly shrugs them off and still manages to put up quite a bit of a fight before you finally get to kill him.]]** Averted later in the game [[spoiler:Nanami tries to deflect arrows coming your way, but gets hit by one of them. Though your enemy by this point, even Jowy is pissed off enough to [[EnemyMine temporarily side with you]] in order to take down Gorudo, who ordered his men to fire on you and Jowy. Whether she survives or not depends on if you gathering the 108 stars together and a [[GuideDangIt few other things]].]]* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: L'Renouille means absolutely nothing in French. Even the translator admits that the name is just French-sounding gibberish. ** The nearest word is "grenouille" -- which means "frog", appropriately. * AxCrazy: Luca Blight. His motto could well be "You can't spell slaughter without ''laughter''!"* BadAss: Luca Blight again. It takes eighteen of your party members, combined fire from several companies of archers, and a one-on-one duel with the hero to finally kill him (in which he can perfectly kill you easily, despite being reduce to 1/3 of his health, if you choose the wrong options - and unlike most duels in the game, his sentences are incredibly cryptic, giving you no clue of what moves he will actually do).* BadassNormal: Luca Blight yet again. He's one of the most terrifying men in the ''entire series'', and he only fights with a sword and heavy armor.* BattleAmongstTheFlames: Both literally [[spoiler: at the Merc's Fort]] and a verbal one between Shu and Leon.* BattleBoomerang: Millie is the only character in the game with a Boomerang as their weapon.* TheBattleDidntCount: [[LevelGrinding Absurd amounts of grinding]] makes it possible to defeat Rowd when you fight him in front of your house, but you're still captured afterward. Very amusingly ''inverted'' during a boss fight when you recruit Tir. If you lose the fight, your team simply gets back up again, with Riou and Tir destroying the first turn of a following battle* BattleEpic: While not real events, the plot does feature a heavy does of this* BigBookOfWar: With respect to Silverberg's strategy; lampshaded by Leon and Shu. "Never put your own life in danger, that's the first rule of the book." "I had to throw away the book, you read it too many times."* BigBadassBattleSequence: The major battles might count.* BigDamnHeroes: This is one of the default ways that unwinnable situations tend to work themselves out.* BittersweetEnding: Any of the non-complete endings. [[spoiler:Riou had to kill his best friend, became immortal due to getting the full version of Rune of the Beginning, and decided to lead the country he led to victory, sacrificing most of his youth and with the knowledge that most of the people he cared about are gone. On the other hand, he saved the world from Luca Blight's wrath and the Beast Rune, reformed the City-States of Jowston and ensured peace between it and the Highlands, making they stay united during the eventual Higheast Rebellion.]]* BlindIdiotTranslation: Konami has some really great and thorough localizations under its belt. This ain't one of them.** Bad word choice is everywhere. The scene you get for completing [[spoiler:Clive's quest]] and its insane criteria is [[PlayerPunch nearly nonsensical.]]** Some characters lapse in and out of HulkSpeak.** Most egregiously of all, they ''forgot to translate certain parts of the text'' (mostly a few lines of optional villager dialogue and some enemy names in out-of-the-way locations), having it show up as gibberish.** It's not just the text- entire pieces of music are missing. The [[RuleOfDrama especially dramatic ones]], like the battlefield theme and when Annalee sings. What should have been highlights in the game are rendered several minutes of unskippable, awkward silence.*** This was fixed-ish in the PAL version. ** The OldSaveBonus is a tad soured by jumbling the character's name.** About halfway through the game they decide to change "Jowy" to "Joei" and then back to "Jowy" again.** The Spanish translation is even worse, full of grammar and syntax mistakes and ridiculously bad word choice. * BoisterousBruiser: Viktor once more.* BoobsOfSteel: Oulan has some of the most impressive physical stats, and her {{Gainaxing}} suggests her chest is equally impressive.* BookEnds: The game starts out with Riou and Jowy jumping off a cliff after making a pact that they should return to that cliff when they get separated to escape from the ambush of the Highland Army. Two of the endings [[spoiler: let you go back in that same cliff where you duel Jowy. One is where he lives if you get all of the 108 and one is where he dies.]]* BrassBalls: When [[spoiler:[[AntiVillain Jowy]] tells [[TheEvilPrince Luca Blight]] that he intends to marry [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses Jillia]]]], Luca responds with an EvilLaugh and shouts, "You've got balls, I'll give you that!"* BunnyEarsLawyer: Fitcher.* ButThouMust: Mostly played to the hilt here; don't talk to Shu before you're ''sure'' you're ready to proceed with the plot, or he'll take the decision out of your hands. There ''are'' a couple notable exceptions, however...* CallBack: You could make a page out of it due to being a direct sequel to ''{{VideoGame/SuikodenI}}''.* TheCaligula: Luca Blight is the god of the trope.* CanonName: Though the protagonist has no official name, the Japanese novelization and drama CD gave him the name of Riou, which has become a common FanNickname for the character. The name "Tao" has been used as well in a manga adaptation.* ChefOfIron: Hai Yo, master of both the CookingDuel and the fighting arena, wields kitchen implements.* CharacterDevelopment: Among others, Flik continues his evolution into a [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan favorite]].** Also, remember when Apple was a bratty Mathiu fangirl? Three years have made her into a competent vice-strategist, a co-general in war, and a mature young lady to boot.* ChickMagnet: Flik is endlessly (and hilariously) plagued by this.* ChildByRape: Luca's sister, Jillia. Being forced to watch the act itself served to slowly drive Luca off the deep end.* ChildSoldier: Riou and Jowy....a theme of this game revolves around the tragedy of children fighting, or are impacted by, adult wars and conflicts.* ChivalrousPervert: Certain dialogue options let you portray Riou as one.* ClimaxBoss: In addition to being a massive boss battle that involves fighting him in a strategic military battle, then ''three times'' in succession with different parties, then ''again'' in a one-on-one dual, the boss fight with Luca Blight serves as the climax to the first part of the plot, since everything you've done up until that point was focused on stopping him specifically.* ClingyJealousGirl: Nina, toward Flik, especially when she (falsely) suspects that Nanami may be a rival for his love. To a much lesser extent, there's Eilie, who shows signs of steadily becoming one after developing a [[EveryoneCanSeeIt rather obvious crush]] on Riou. * CombatByChampion: Surprisingly subverted, considering the number of one-on-one fights that Riou engages in with important people. Riou's duels only occur either ''after'' the "combat by army-scale slaughter" parts, or in places completely unrelated to large-scale conflict. ** Played straight in a flashback between Genkaku (Jowston) and Han Cunningham (Highland) to decide who gets to control Kyaro. Han won because Genkaku just refuses to raise his sword (because it was coveted by poison)* ContinuityNod: ''Tons'' of them, firmly establishing the world.* CoolButInefficient: [[BlackKnight Pesmerga]] has been accused to this. He starts out as a powerhouse, but joins late, leaves no room for customization, thus the latter-mentioned possible GameBreaker will surpass him. Though to be fair, for a quick-run game (for those who just doesn't want to bother with heavy customization), he's still a good choice.* CookingDuel: Played completely straight, Hai Yo has to cook his way through an entire tournament over the course of the game.* CurbStompBattle: There are a couple of these which happens during the game, though the tide of the battle can change very quickly, against all odds:** When you are fighting Rowd at Kyaro, he will beat Riou and Jowy very quickly (unless you are way overleveled for that part, and even then it won't change the outcome).** When defending Viktor's fort, initially, your army has a crushing advantage against the Highland's one, thanks to Tsai's flame spears, and you win the first army battle easily. However, the tables are turned immediatly during the second attack: the full forces of Luca's army are here, you are vastly outnumbered, and the flame spears stop working.** The war battle in which Ridley's unit gets surrounded. More often than not, Ridley will be crushed, since your army is too far away to help him in time. However, it is possible for his army to actually survive, and even destroy several enemies war units on his own: Ridley may be surrounded, but he is still a badass commander.** Your ambush of Luca's army seems to be this as first: Luca's unit is cornered by yours and Sasarai's troups are completly ''destroyed'' by Luc's True Wind rune. [[SubvertedTrope Then Luca gets angry and singlehandedly wounds half of your army]].** The night ambush on Luca's troups by your army is mostly successful, allowing you to kill most of his men very easily. It should be a CurbStompBattle for your army against his. [[SubvertedTrope Well, that would be forgetting that Luca is figuratively a monster, who is perfectly able to mop the floor with your cadavers on his own]].** For once, played straight against [[spoiler:Gorudo]]: you have only [[spoiler:Riou and Jowy]], but the two of them are enough to beat him and his troops.* CuteMute: Pilika, a sweet child who passes through the hands of various guardians and goes through severe [[BreakTheCutie trauma]] in the process.* DidTheyOrDidntThey: Never explicitly stated but implied at the beginning of the game with Rina and a random State soldier that blocks the party's path.* [[spoiler:DiscOneFinalBoss - Luca Blight. Up until the point where you fight him, he's been set up as the BigBad, and it takes a battle involving three parties to take him down. However, if you've been diligent in recruiting allies, you may notice you've only filled up two thirds of the names on the tablet... Naturally, you're not done yet.]]* {{Dracolich}}: Yuber's Bone Dragon.* DuelBoss: The 1v1 rock-paper-scissors narrative duels from Suikoden make a return.* EasterEgg: If you refuse to jump off the cliff at the beginning 108 times (and fight 108 fights), the intro will be in color instead of a MonochromePast.* EarnYourHappyEnding: Hammered home when Riou's decisions during the [[MultipleEndings 108 Stars ending]] determines just how ''good'' the Good ending gets.* EmpathicWeapon: The Star Dragon Sword once again.** As always, the True Runes.* EnemyMine: [[spoiler:Some characters on both sides of the Toran Republic and Jowston see an alliance together as this, given their bloody history with one another years before. Lepant, however, recognizes that his country will be the next target of Luca Blight if Riou and his army should fail, so he wastes no time in throwing his support behind them.]]** [[spoiler: Leon, Seed, Culgan, and Jowy secretly ally themselves with the rebellion for the purpose of killing Luca, as they all realize how dangerous of a man he is.]]** [[spoiler:Though Jowy is your enemy by this point, when taking on Gorudo, he teams up with you after witnessing one of Gorudo's troops hit Nanami with an arrow.]]* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Rina wastes no time in teasing Eilie about her crush on Riou. Richmond outright tells him about it, should you have him investigate her. And, although it's never brought up by any of the characters, Kasumi's crush on Tir is as painfully obvious as it was in the first game.* EvilLaugh: Luca Blight's distinctive "'''HOO HOO HOO HA HA HA HA HA!!!'''"* TheEvilPrince: ''Prince Luca Blight'', though Bat Shit Insane Prince is more accurate.* ExactWords: [[spoiler:Sierra promises not to harm Neclord if he returns the True Moon Rune to her. After he does so, she lets Viktor kill him.]]* FalseFlagOperation: The game opens with Riou and Jowy almost falling victim to one of these. [[spoiler: Your army sort of pulls off one of their own later on, by getting several forcibly conscripted units to switch sides.]]* FakeDefector: [[spoiler:Jowy, though ultimately his goals end up different than yours]].* FakingTheDead: If you [[GottaCatchEmAll recruit all the characters]], [[spoiler:Nanami's]] death turns out to be this.* FluffyTheTerrible: The boss of the Two River sewers is a grotesque, three-eyed [[RodentsOfUnusualSize rodent the size of a truck]], capable of collapsing part of the ceiling just by jumping up and down. It’s called “Pest rat”, complete with inexplicably-lowercase "r".* FogOfDoom: The first boss fight in the game.* ForegoneVictory: Somewhat subverted. There is a boss fight during the quest in which you recruit Tir, [[OldSaveBonus the main character from the first game]]. The battle itself is mildly difficult, and it ''is'' possible to lose. However, you almost immediately enter another battle against the same boss...in which Tir and Riou will nuke it with their most powerful rune spells (despite Riou not even ''knowing'' his), instantly killing it. So even if you lose the battle, you still beat it, and your team even gets EXP for it.* ForeShadowing: If you have Richmond investigate Georg, you will learn [[spoiler:about an incident that occurred in the Queendom of Falena]], something that players would not witness until Suikoden V, a game that came about 7 years later. Unless your memory is really good (or you played Suikoden V not long after playing Suikoden II), you likely won't appreciate that bit of information. Gotta hand it to Konami for planning that far ahead with the timeline.* FreudianExcuse: Some of the supplemental material gives Luca Blight one of these. [[spoiler:As a child he witnessed the rape of his mother and his father proved to be completely spineless in stopping it. He was never the same after that day]]. This is vaguely alluded to in the scene where [[spoiler:Luca has his father poisoned.]]* {{Gainaxing}}: The Neclordia enemies jiggle their breasts every few seconds.** Oulan's breasts jiggle in her normal sprite animation.** Kasumi does this too, if you look closely for a little. * GameBreakingBug: Thanks some really bad programming, certain items will glitch and become unavailable if you trigger certain conditions (the notorious Recipe 12 and 34 glitch being the worst).* GameplayAndStorySegregation: Recruiting Oulan requires the hero being knocked away by some thugs (though this is via surprise attack) and the ladies in his entourage getting grabbed to be taken to custody. This is forgetting that these ladies can range from a {{Badass}} foreign country general to a powerful immortal vampire mistress, they need to act vulnerable a bit so Oulan can save the day.* GenkiGirl: Nanami, Nina (to the annoyance of Flik), Wakaba* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: The last bit of information [[HardboiledDetective Richmond]] digs up on [[BoobsOfSteel Oulan]]: '90 60 89'. "What could that mean", indeed.* GuideDangIt: Damn you, [[EventFlag Event Flags]]!** The Clive and Elza subplot requires you to reach many different points in the game by a certain amount of time played. These time limits are not nice, and anyone not rushing through the game (Unlikely, given the games 'recruit em all' nature) is unlikely to go beyond just recruiting Clive, and MAYBE getting the first letter.** Speaking of time limits... [[spoiler:Preventing Nanami's death]] requires (among quite a few other things) extremely quick selection on a particular dialogue choice. Even if you get it ''right'', the game won't tell you if you got it right until [[spoiler:the scene where doctor Huan declares her dead. If you get it right, there is a short additional dialogue in which Huan asks Shu to follow him inside the infirmary. The nature of why Huan asked Shu inside is revealed in the TrueEnding.]]* TheGunslinger: Elza* HeroAntagonist: Jowy* HeroicBSOD: Poor, ''poor'' Pilika.* HeroicMime: Played with. Riou is silent unless about trying to pick some choices. If you load the previous game data, Tir also doesn't even speak. But, if you take Tir to the Rockaxe mission or the final battle, he can talk.* HopelessBossFight: The first "Major Battle" War has Luca springing a surprise attack after the JustifiedTutorial. It is impossible to get the third "sword" symbol onto his personal unit indicating a successful attack which will defeat said unit. (Little surprise, given what happens when you ''do'' much later.)* HundredPercentCompletion: Unachievable if you consider "recruit every available character" as a requirement. You have to choose between two characters at one point (see SchrodingersGun), and you don't have enough Listening Crystals to recruit every available monster.* InformedAbility: On paper, Leon Silverberg is the greatest strategist in the series but from what we see in the actual game, he can't hold a candle to Shu, let alone [[SuikodenV Lucretia Merces]] or [[SuikodenIII Albert Silverberg]]. He does, however, acknowledge that his reputation is overblown, and that he's past his prime.* InsigniaRipOffRitual: Miklotov to Gorudo. "I am a human first and a Knight second!"** And then Camus does it when Gorudo orders him to arrest Miklotov.*** And then BOTH of their units all do it when he tries to get anyone to arrest them.* JerkAss:** Luc yet again.** Chaco is one little troublesome guy at first, but in the end came around.** Rowd, your superior, who didn't bat an eye when he had to execute the youths under his command, and who would have killed you personaly several times if destiny didn't say otherwise.* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Rowd]]** [[spoiler:In the supplemental material, it's revealed that he takes his blind little sister from Kyaro and flees after the war. He was trying to gain enough money to have "a doctor in Toran" (most likely Liukan) cure her illness, hence why he went along with Luca's schemes in order to get promoted.]]** Jowy in the best ending. No matter what his excuses or his reasons [[spoiler: he is a murderer, conspirator, accessory to genocide and directly responsible for perpetuating a costly and brutal war]] Interestingly enough, even he thinks he is one and that he must pay for those sins.* KickTheDog: Luca Blight does this for [[IncrediblyLamePun kicks]]. Shu also engages in a fair amount of puppy-punting, especially when [[spoiler: he uses Pilika as a human shield and abandons her to the enemy so that the hero may escape from an otherwise hopeless trap. Granted, he did this knowing Jowy would never let any harm come to her, but it still came off as rather asshole-ish.]]* KillItWithFire: One of Luca's favorite policies.* KnifeThrowingAct: Which, depending on the choices you make, can go horribly wrong. Not that it has an effect on the story though.* LethalJokeCharacter: Hai Yo the chef comes with three rune slots, giving him insane tweaking potential despite having poor stats.* LethalJokeItem: The Fire Sealing Rune you get while Riou and Jowy spy at the Highland camp. Useless if you're fighting against enemies who use [[MakingASplash Water type attacks]] seeing as you get double the pain. [[spoiler: Use it against [[ThatOneBoss Luca Blight]] and ''laugh'' at the damage he'll inflict on you.]]** A way around the aforementioned double-damage from Water attacks is to wear equipment that reduces water damage, so it's fine.* LoadBearingBoss: Sees a rare subversion in L'Renouille.* LongSongShortScene: The general-purpose Duel theme, "The Time for Confrontation," features an intro roughly a minute long and takes about another minute and a half to complete a whole play cycle. The theme is used exclusively for duels; as in, one-on-one narrative battles that, unless you truly relish taking your time, are over very quickly. The song wouldn't be quite ''as'' wasted as it is if the duel with Luca Blight, which is the one duel you might spend the requisite amount of time upon, didn't have its own theme, "Mad Luca." * LovesTheSoundOfScreaming: Luca Blight* MayflyDecemberRomance: [[{{Bishounen}} Nash Latkje]] a seemingly ordinary man from a not so ordinary family and [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Sierra Mikain]] the oldest vampire in the world. They traveled together to hunt for Rean Penenberg a man that turned into a vampire because Sierra drank his blood.* MutuallyExclusivePartyMembers: Kasumi and Valeria. Also the Listening Crystal monsters.* NaginatasAreFeminine: [[http://suikoden.wikia.com/wiki/Yoshino_Yamamoto Yoshino Yamamoto's]] weapon of choice. She and Freed are a model Japanese soldier and wife team in the series.* {{Narcissist}}: Zamza. He keeps stating in the suggestion box that as long as he's in the party with Riou, they'll keep standing out on top. And he doesn't like it when you take him out of your party. He even tells that he's an important member of Riou's army and complains that he doesn't get his own room. * NoblewomansLaugh: When trying to get into Muse, Nanami starts doing this when she's pretending to be Hilda. It's complete with the hand over the mouth.* NonActionGuy: Hix returns, along with {{Tsundere}} girlfriend Tengaar.* NonStandardGameOver: At one point, Nanami can convince Riou to [[spoiler: desert the army and run for it. This triggers Shu giving Riou a WhatTheHellHero speech, after which you can return and face the consequences... or run away again and end the game.]]* ObviousBeta: Let's be honest here, while the gameplay and story itself are top notch, the English localization ''reeked'' of this.** It also retroactively makes the first game look like an ObviousBeta, given how many of the second game's new characters are blatant {{exp|y}}ies of characters from the first game, not to mention the entire game engine is basically an extremely polished version of the engine from the first game.* OldSaveBonus: Uploading old data from the first game gives you several personal [[ContinuityNod Continuity Nods]], and the chance to recruit a old friend...* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: [[spoiler: Clive gets to find Elza after all]].* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: Bob is a man-wolf whose rune keeps him into a human form.* PaintingTheMedium: Shin and Genshu's [[CombinationAttack United Attack]], which cuts the screen in half.* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: A GoodBadBug at the border of Muse and Matilda turns Matilda into this early in the game.* PettingZooPeople: The kobolds return, more cartoony than ever.* PitifulWorms: Luca, when he's not comparing everyone else to pigs.* PoisonMushroom: The consumable item Spinach Juice that can be gotten from killing a low level {{Mook}}. It heals 300 HP but it poisons you. It's inventory description says it causes "???". It actually poisons everyone who uses it. And you'd be constantly using healing items if you're in a place where you have to battle enemies that can dish out large damage to your characters. Given how poison damages your character even outside battles, this item would make things worse or better when given the right scenario.* PretextForWar: The point of the early-game FalseFlagOperation.* PreviousPlayerCharacterCameo: As an OldSaveBonus you can meet and recruit the protagonist from the first game. [[GameBreaker And he's awesome.]]* ProductionForeshadowing: Quite possibly the most in the series, since there are references in the game that the rest of the series takes a note from. For example:** The Holy Kingdom of Harmonia serves as a major faction in ''SuikodenIII''.** Shu makes the protagonists find a coin he used to trade with the Island Nations, the setting for ''SuikodenIV''.** Georg Prime, a seemingly random character with an interesting history revealed by Richmond was used as the plot for ''SuikodenV''.* PsychoForHire: Yuber* QuicklyDemotedWoman: A self-demoting example in Apple. Somewhat justified by her severe lack of self-confidence, shaken up worse by a jarring setback that prompts her to seek out a 'better replacement' for the rebellion's own good.* RapeAsBackstory: the Blight family of Suikoden II. The queen Sara Blight was raped by Jowston's thugs, Jillia was born out of this, and Luca uses this as a motive for [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge revenge.]]* RasputinianDeath: Luca Blight. It takes tons of effort to finally do him in.** [[LargeHam "It took hundreds to kill me, but I killed by the thousands! Look at me! I am sublime! I am the true face of evil!"]]** not quite, if you are good at duels it does not matter how much HP he has left. Just don't mess up...once** Even worse, the first few times, you're likely to fail in the duel at the end. Have fun doing it over.** To clarify: First, there's an army battle where your entire army attempts to crush his unit [[spoiler: and fails. Then, thanks to his lieutenants betraying him,]] Luca's small raiding party is surrounded and attacked by the entire Jowston army. Then the hero, Flik, and Victor each lead a full-sized party of what could be considered elite soldiers into a three-stage boss fight where (unless the player's done some level grinding) Luca still nearly stomps everyone flat. Luca then escapes, and is shot by an entire unit of archers. When Riou finally finds Luca, he charges Riou and forces a duel, which if you didn't do enough damage to him in the aforementioned three-stage boss fight, can be so difficult as to be UnWinnable. He only expires ''after'' he's been beaten to near-death with tonfa.* RedOniBlueOni: Quite a few:** Seed and Culgan.** Viktor and Flik are their similarly colour-coded Alliance counterparts.** Miklotov and Camus as well. Interestingly, they lead the Blue and Red Knights, respectively, opposite of what their personalities dictate.** Tengaar and Hix.* SchrodingersGun: Interestingly, one character is a Schrodinger's ''Star'': Tomo. The player has to choose between recruiting ''just one'' of two returning characters; Tomo automatically receives the other's Star of Destiny. This is the ''only'' case of this happening in the series, and is simply a way of getting around a gameplay mechanic.* SeriousBusiness: Hai Yo's cooking sidequest treats secret recipes with the seriousness usually reserved for forbidden spells and lost ninja arts.* SequenceBreaking: By pushing the gate of the Matilda Border, the player can access the region far, FAR earlier than it is intended. By using a simple strategy the player can survive a wild encounter and level up to three characters about 20 times in one single fight, with an Inn nearby. In about 15 minutes you can have the party to be strong enough to take about half of the game with ease, with the bonus of being able to use one of Jowy's [[GameBreaker ludicrously overpowered spells]] that you aren't even supposed to see until near the end of the game.** By going a little farther you can recruit two characters that wouldn't join until WAY later. And it's funny to see they refer to the hero with a title he isn't even near to acquire; it's also nice to have an earlier user of the Heavy Armor trait in major battles.** Not to mention that he uses a rune he's yet to obtain, depending on ''how'' early you do this.* SequentialBoss: Luca Blight is fought in an extreme version of this, including a strategic battle, ''three'' regular battles with different parties, then a on-on-one dual with the hero.* SheatheYourSword: [[spoiler:The only way to get the best ending is to do this in the final duel, assuming you also got the 108 stars and saved one specific character]].* ShockAndAwe:** Flik, the '[[RedBaron Blue Lightning]]', returns. He has the best affinity possible with the Thunder rune, making him deals more damages with it than most characters.** Jeane, despite being non-playable in this game, can use her Thunder rune during war battles to attack with lighting from afar.** Anyone who uses a Lightning/Thunder Rune.* ShoutOut: There's a row of five flowerpots near the entrance of Greenhill. Examining four of them will give the description 'Dahlias'. The second one from the right, on the other hand, says 'Dahlia Gillespie', a reference to [[SilentHill another Konami series.]]* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler:The normal ending.]]* SmugSnake: Neclord.* SpellMyNameWithAnS: Happens ''in game'' with Jowy/'Joei'.* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: Jowy's [[CastingAShadow Black]] [[PowerOfTheVoid Sword]] [[ArtifactOfDoom Rune]]'s Level 4 Spell, [[StormOfBlades Hungry Friend]], which summons the [[VisualNovel/FateStayNight Gate Of Babylon]] upon all enemies on the screen, and then pushes them so hard into the Void that it would make [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Exdeath]] jealous.** [[spoiler: Of course, unless you [[LevelGrinding grind like crazy]], you'll only get to use it in one battle.]]* TheStarscream: [[spoiler: Jowy ends up becoming this later on.]]* TheStrategist: Shu, you MagnificentBastard!* SuplexFinisher: Like the first game, Kasumi can do this to anyone (Except the Stone Golem boss).* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Seed and Culgan.* {{Tomboy}}: Wakaba.** Nanami as well.** Tengaar, who is bossing around poor Hix.* ToWinWithoutFighting: Highland's BatmanGambit to capture Greenhill. They released some [=POWs=] from Muse into Greenhill, so Greenhill thought Highland just wanted to fight fair and square. However, Highland laid a siege into the city by [[SheatheYourSword just standing over there]] ''[[IdiotBall before they could even react]]''. This resulted to a food shortage so bad that ''[[EnemyCivilWar a civil war erupted within it]]''. Sounds bad? The Highland Army freed the Muse soldiers and returned their weapons ''specifically for that purpose''. As Teresa says, Greenhill lost to a handful of Highland soldiers ''without even having fought''.* TranquilFury: [[spoiler:When Gorudo shot Nanami, Riou is shocked. Jowy? He is visibly shaking with burning anger, and you can now unleash his most powerful and deadly spell, ''Hungry Friend'', on her murderer.]]* TraumaCongaLine: A few. [[spoiler:Notably, the main character goes through one that arcs across the entire game, especially if you don't get the GoodEnding. He's betrayed by his captain, betrayed by his friend, and loses his sister in the ensuing war. Pilika is also a fair contender for this]]* TriumphantReprise: "We Will Always Be" consists of an awesome version of the cooking minigame theme (yes, really!) and a positive reprise to "Heart-Softening BGM 3".* {{Tsundere}}: Tengaar returns, three years older and just as tsun-tsun and dere-dere as ever.* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Riou, Jowy and Nanami.* UnexplainedRecovery: If a character dies during one of the wars in the first game, and you import that file when you start a new game, that character (assuming they appear in II) will be alive and well, with no explanation. It ''is'' lampshaded, but that's it. [[spoiler: Gremio]] is an exception.* UnstoppableRage: When [[spoiler:Nanami is shot by Gorudo's men, Riou and Jowy immediatly forget that they were ready to fight eachother to death seconds prior, and team up against him]]. The music playing during this battle perfectly conveys their rightous fury (the track is not called ''Iron Fist of Anger'' for nothing), and on top of that [[spoiler:Jowy has now unlocked his Black Sword's final spell]], which you will be very happy to unleash against the bastard.* VillainousBreakdown: Luca when [[spoiler:the locket he picks up turns out to be filled with fireflies that alert the heroes to his position.]] Neclord when [[spoiler:Sierra shows up and seals his True Moon Rune preventing him from escaping from Kahn's trap.]]* VoluntaryShapeShifter: Bob.* WarriorPrince: Luca Blight, yet again.* WarForFunAndProfit: What was the point of the war?** Territorial dispute and revenge.*** Lots and lots of revenge. Highland and the City-States had been warring for ''years'', with the occasional truce that failed to last. The most recent war was sparked because, in addition to Luca Blight being ''[[AxCrazy fucking insane]]'', he wanted to kill everyone in the City-States for his mother's rape/death. Oh, and he wanted to kill everyone in the Highlands because his father didn't seem to care about his mother's rape/death. Basically, he wanted to kill everyone.*** It helps that the guy responsible for his mother's rape/death was the then-Mayor of Muse, who is pretty much at the center of the City-States; he's personally responsible for a LOT of the bad feeling on both sides.* WilliamTelling: The hero participates in a traveling circus's show by having various pieces of fruit placed on his head while knife-thrower Eilie impales them with expert precision. You can throw off her aim and get hit with a knife yourself by choosing to wimp out and move to either side before she throws.* WingedHumanoid: The Wingers.* YouSaidYouWouldLetThemGo: Luca Blight [[LargeHam DOES NOT SPARE SWINE!!]]* ZeroApprovalGambit: What ultimately happened to [[spoiler: Genkaku, before he adopted Riou and Nanami.]]----